Sending Josephine home

“On May 17, 2018, Calgary Police surrounded a home in Penbrooke Meadows. Two people – a man and a woman – unknown to the owners, had barricaded themselves inside the empty basement suite. After an hour-long stakeout, police entered the home. When they came out, the man was critically injured, and the woman was dead. For nearly a month the dead woman’s name was not released. It was the third fatal shooting by Calgary Police Service (CPS) officers that year. Her name was Josephine Shelly Lynn Pelletier. She was Cree and Saulteaux, and she was 33 years old.”

Sarah Birrell – Briarpatch – December 2018

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An oral history of the time Toronto called in the army to deal with the snow

 
Tyler Dawson, Nick Faris – National Post – January 2019

The Hustler

“One game is every game for Brendan Gallagher. It’s almost as if the Montreal Canadiens right winger skates in front of a green screen, performing the same actions over and over while the images change behind him. It doesn’t matter whether he’s playing in Boston, home of a blood rival, or in California on a once-a-year trip. Or if it’s in front of empty seats in Arizona or at home in the ever-humming Bell Centre. To No. 11, every sheet of ice is the same and the job he has to do doesn’t change.”

Ryan Dixon – Sportsnet – December 2018

Bad Jobs: Why We Stayed

“They tasked me with designing and developing a website, marketing plans and brochures, and dealing with customers, as well as purchase orders, packaging goods and arranging shipments. Most days, I had a lot of independence; I hired printing companies, and sourced out costs, and travel to the U.S. Work made me feel important and valuable. As someone who had grown up working in various not-for-profit organizations, this type of fast-paced capitalist driven enterprise was exhilarating.”

Leonarda Carranza, Tamara Jong – Carte Blanche – January 2019

Educating Grayson: Are inclusive classrooms failing students?

“Lisa Kahn developed a daily routine this fall. She’d eat breakfast, feed her family and get her two children ready for school – Grayson, a seven-year-old boy with strawberry blond hair and blue eyes, and his older sister, Avery. After she dropped them off, she’d practise deep breathing with help from an app on her watch. And then she would brace herself for the phone call.”

Caroline Alphonso – The Globe and Mail – January 2019

The Business of Bedtime

“Somewhere, right now, there is a baby who should be sleeping. Instead, she is screaming in a crib, wailing in a stroller, or sitting up, eyes wide open, in a car being driven endlessly in circles. But there is one baby who isn’t. Jack is four and a half months old, and he just passed out in his mother’s arms. She is sitting on a grey felt rocking chair, and on a nearby table, a down-tempo, slightly spacey version of Brahms’s ‘Lullaby’ is playing from a Bluetooth-connected gizmo, a cylindrical speaker and night light, all of which she is controlling with her iPhone.”

David Sax – The Walrus – January 2019

This is how Canada’s housing correction begins

“Kirk Marsh first noticed the mood start to turn in Vancouver’s housing market a year ago. As a real estate investor who buys homes and condos then fixes them up for resale, Marsh has an excellent vantage point on the market. Since giving up his old job in tech three years ago to flip real estate—’Sitting at a desk was killing me,’ he says—Marsh has bought and sold six detached homes and condominiums across the B.C. Lower Mainland. ‘It’s not like TV shows where you see them making $100,000 or more each time, it’s just not like that,’ he says. But he’s done well, always able to find buyers and come out ahead.”

Jason Kirby – Maclean’s – January 2018